Geographic

The United States is tightening its oversight of the tens of billions of dollars resident and undocumented migrants send home each year through Western Union, MoneyGram, and other money services businesses (MSBs), according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department warning.  

United Nations expert is calling for the United States to lift its decades-old sanctions on Cuba, citing their corrosive impact on the country’s populace and economic future, Al Jazeera reported. 

An intricate network of Russian, North Korean, and Gulf-based companies has been quietly helping funnel hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to North Korea in apparent violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a new investigation by OCCRP and its affiliates.

Law enforcement raids on luxury Kyiv apartments, including one bathroom fitted with a golden toilet, and images of duffel bags stuffed with cash have plunged President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration into its biggest corruption crisis since he took office, the Financial Times reported. 

Singapore is facing renewed scrutiny over its defenses against dirty money after police seized hundreds of millions of dollars in assets linked to the Prince Group, a conglomerate labelled by U.S. and UK authorities as a “transnational criminal empire,” according to the Financial Times.

Wildlife traffickers are funneling dirty money through the same financial pipelines used for such illicit activity as human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and the illegal sale of weapons around the world, according to new University of Waterloo research cited by CBC News. 

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase €21.5 million for failing to properly monitor transactions, including activity potentially linked to child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes. 

Blacklisted charities affiliated with Hezbollah have been directing supporters to send money through Lebanon’s booming digital payments sector, routing contributions to wallets held by private individuals rather than official charity accounts, the Financial Times reported.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday blacklisted a Mexican human-smuggling ring, imposing sanctions against four individuals and 16 companies it says helped illegally migrate to the United States.  The Cancun-based Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization has illicitly transported thousands of people from Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia […]

Al Qaeda’s West Africa affiliate is edging toward a historic first: control of a national capital. JNIM have tightened a monthslong blockade of Bamako, choking off fuel and food in a strategy European security officials describe as a creeping takeover rather than an all-out assault.